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Snowstorm Prime
Snowstorm Prime is an incredibly powerful spell which the illithids use to alter reality in order to keep their species alive. All information the party has about this spell comes from The Mother Brain of Mind's Touch. The Spell Snowstorm Prime causes a new Age to begin by exchanging seeds of reality. These seeds include gods, powerful people, and entire civilizations. Some seeds which were omitted in the current Age can be recovered. Which and how many seeds persist depends in part on the caster's success at performing the spell. Seeds named by the Mother include Talnec Franco, Ravinia, each individual Mother, and Barron Ganth. Once a Mother has spawned a caster, that Mother cannot persist into the new Age. The fate of the casters is less clear. The caster might persist into the age they create (though in what form is unclear) but is likely unable to persist at the beginning of the following age. The illithids cast this spell periodically because it keeps the Mothers who persist from dying. At the beginning of time, there were nine mothers; since then, the spell has been cast twice and there are now five Mothers remaining. The death of the extra two Mothers is attributed to caster error. When the time comes for the spell to be cast again, there is usually an external dire threat to the world. Other entities sometimes attempt to cast inferior versions of the spell which would do grievous damage to the world, prompting the illithids to pre-empt them. Previous castings marked the transition from Primordial Chaos to the First Age, then from the First Age to the Second Age. The illithid version of Snowstorm Prime can only be cast by a special illithid who is born once per age; the chance of a given tadpole successfully becoming this illithid was described as "a tadpole that would have become a ulitharid, with the same probability of a normal tadpole becoming a ulitharid." Said illithid looks like all other illithids, making the identity of the potential caster hard to predict. When the illithids need to reboot time, each Mother attempts to spawn the caster; multiple illithids may believe themselves to be the caster. There will be at maximum seven Ages unless other species become able to cast the spell when the illithids die out. Three things are necessary to cast Snowstorm Prime, according to the Mother: *The brightness of a thousand suns *The light of a Frozen Fate *The portfolio of a mature god. The instructions for casting lie in Ravinia, at least in this age. This time the spell is associated with ice; last time it was a fire spell. (Speculation: Firestorm Prime?) Casters *Nothing is known of the first caster. *The second caster was either Xenteroth or one of his disciples in some form. Xenteroth may have become a lich in an attempt to persist into the coming Third Age. However, he's not taking any chances and he wants to prevent the spell being cast if possible. (We think. This is Xenteroth here.) *Haveo Gloriosa is a Harmonian who managed to survive the loss of Ravinia in the last casting. He is attempting to cast a bastardized version of the spell which will retrieve Ravinia at the cost of the Awakening. *Ashra has been told by her Mother that she is the new caster who will bring about the Third Age. She is attempting to do so. Her time powers may be a sign that she is the true caster (at least, she likes to think so). *Grax may have also been a candidate at one time, but is allied with Xenteroth. Notable Survivors Anyone who was alive at the transition between ages and didn't poof out of existence technically survived, but some people have a particular connection to the spell: *The Girl with No Name survived the transition from the First to Second Ages, making her much older than anyone guessed. Her memories of fire are connected to the world's rebirth. *Talnec Franco was lost in one Age and retrieved in another. He does not want the world to end again, which may be why he sent the party to try to prevent the Awakening. Category:Eon Mythos Category:Why We Can't Have Nice Things